In today's rapid technological development, it is getting more and more common to provide different kind of devices or machines with means for communication with a mobile communication network. This technological development is predicted to continue in the future as well. Consequently, more and more devices or machines, such as cameras, meters, cars, vending machines and so forth will in the future be provided with means for communication by means of a mobile communication network. In the following description, the term ‘machine’ will be used to represent any machine, device or equipment capable of communicating with a communication network.
In order for a machine to be able to communicate with or using a communication network, several requirements need to be fulfilled, some of which will be briefly outlined here. In addition to having a transmitter and a receiver, the machine needs to be associated with an identity which is valid in the communication network to which the machine desires to connect and use for communication. One reason for this is that the operator of the communication network in question will want to charge the machine for the communication that takes place, among other things.
A common standard today for providing a machine with an identity is to use a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) or Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM). In other words, an operator of a mobile communication network provides an identity, credentials and operator specific information in a module or circuit card that is inserted into the machine. One example of such a module is the UICC, Universal Integrated Circuit Card.
However, there may arise some problems with inserting such a module or circuit card into a machine that is intended to be able to communicate using a mobile communication network. The machine may be very small with insufficient space to accommodate such a module, such as the UICC comprising the SIM/USIM or making the insertion of such a module difficult and cumbersome. It may also be necessary for a vendor of the device or machine to cooperate when inserting the module during production. Some cooperation between retailer and mobile operators may be required to provision the SIM/USIM at the point of sale.
Further, it becomes necessary to establish and administrate a subscription in relation to the SIM/USIM that is comprised in the UICC which is inserted into a machine.
The UICC is also relatively expensive since it includes a processor with secure computing and memory for storing of credentials.
In today's communication networks, a user equipment or mobile telephone or a portable computer such as a laptop is usually provided with a SIM/USIM. These devices have keyboards with multiple input possibilities. The devices or machines that may be provided with means for communication with/using a mobile communication network in the future may have more limited input possibilities, e.g. they may lack a keyboard.
Therefore, there is a need to simplify provisioning of an identity and related information to a device or machine. Discussions are ongoing in the industry on how to achieve this. However, solutions debated so far require a number of logical functions to handle the administration and cooperation between different players. This will likely make such solutions infeasible or impractical to use.